Assessment Plan

I decided to use my math co-teaching lesson as my showcase lesson. I prepared this lesson to include a pre-assessment, during assessment, and post-assessment. The objective for this lesson was: when given a number with an exponent, students will be able to find the value of that number 90% of the time. The assessments of this lesson were designed to measure the progress of the students towards accomplishing the objective of the lesson. In this lesson I decided to use a variety of instructional methods to reach all of the individuals in the classroom and through the instructional methods I was able to assess and monitor the progress of the students towards the instructional objective. The students in this classroom should have learned to use exponents in the eighth grade and should have been able to do this math on the exit exam to pass high school. However, they were not able to pass the exit exam and they now have to relearn this math. For this reason, it was important for the students to be pre-assessed. I needed to know where to start teaching these students about exponents. Pre-Assessment For the pre-assessment I asked the students to name everything that they already knew about exponents. I wrote this information on a web that I created on the board. As some students started answering, it would spark something in another students mind and they would also give an idea that they already had about exponents. All of the students gave me at least one thing that they already knew about exponents and the information that they provided was correct. One student provided information about exponents that was incorrect and I wrote it on the board anyway saying that we would check and see if that was correct or incorrect during our exploration of exponents. I found that the students were able to give only very basic details about exponents and that they needed to be taught more in depth about the meaning of an exponent and how to use exponents. This pre-assessment provided me with a good idea of how I should instruct my students on exponents and what information that they already know that I can use in their instruction. No accommodations were used during my pre-assessment because all of the students were able to participate equally without intervention. Below is a picture of the web created by the students showing all that they knew about exponents before the lesson.

During Assessment For assessment of the students learning during the lesson I stopped and asked students to solve problems that required them to use steps that we had just learned. As a group we worked on problems that involved certain steps and we talked about these steps in depth. I tried to make sure that the students understood the steps and why they were doing the steps before asking the students to do the steps on their own. I would then ask the students to do a problem similar to the one that we just worked as a group individually. I did require the students to work out the problems in their math notebook with pencil and paper. During the time that the students were to be working out the problems I was walking around making sure that students were progressing with the problem. If the students were not progressing with the problem for some reason or another, I would first try to help them by asking them to refer to the problem that we just did and try and figure out which step came next. If the student still struggled I would scaffold them by asking probing questions about the specific problem. During the lesson I took note of the students who were able to complete the work easily and also of those who struggled a bit more. The students math notebooks provided a clear explanation of who understood the lesson and who did not understand the lesson and I was also able to see the areas in which some students were struggling. I did not take the work from the students because I wanted them to have the work in their math notebooks for future reference but I was able to refer to these notebooks to assess learning. During this assessment I gave students plenty of time to complete the examples that I had them do independently. Some of the students require extended time to complete assignments and I was sure to give this time to the students. Most of the students are on the same levels so they mostly finished

at the same time. If students finished early I asked them to explain to me how they arrived at their answer and why it made since. Below is a table that was used during the lesson by the teachers to keep track of questions and answers for the during assessment.

Example Number 1 1a 2 2a 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Post-Assessment

Answers 25 and 2*2*2*2*2 32 34 and 3*3*3*3 81 -40 -972 135 meters 40 meters Y7 28x4 63x5y11

The post assessment in this lesson was used to determine how well the students understood the lesson. For the post assessment I decided to use another web to gauge the students learning. I also had the students complete one final problem that encompassed all of the steps to using exponents that we had learned. The students were assessed according to the correctness of their answers to the final question. I could look and see if the students got none, part, or the entire question right. I could also see where the students went wrong and what they misunderstood if the answer to the question was not correct. I did not provide any type of accommodations to the students during this activity because all of the students are capable of participating in the activity without any assistance. Below is a picture of the web that I had the class complete, just as I did for the pre-assessment. This assessment allowed me and the students to notice the gains in their knowledge about exponents in an obvious way. The students were able to tell me some important points about exponents. All of the students contributed to the web.

Assessment Plan for Showcase Lesson:

Lesson Objectives When given a number with an exponent, students will be able to find the value of that number 90% of the time.

Assessments Pre-Assessment Assessment During Lesson Post-Assessment

Format of Formative Assessment Pre: The students knowledge of exponents will be preassessed using a web. The teacher will ask the students to name things that they know about exponents. The students will name the things that they know and the teacher will create a web on the board for the teacher and the students to see. During: The students will be assessed

Accommodations The students in this class should all finish the problems that they will be asked to work individually around the same time because they are all around the same ability level. Some of the students may finish before others. These students will be asked how they completed the problem and why they completed the problem this way. If the teacher is busy the

during the lesson upon individual completion of problems that mirror problems that the class has worked out together. Post: The students will be assessed after the lesson by providing the teacher with facts about exponents and how they can be used. The facts will come from the steps that the students have been taught during the lesson and the ways in which the class has identified that exponents can be used.

students will be asked to check their work or will be asked to compare answers with other students.

Use of Formative Assessments: I will use the problems that I have created and that I have retrieved from my reference (South Carolina HSAP Coach) in order to assess the students and their learning gains. In order to make sure that my students are progressing towards the goal set for them, I will make sure that the students are making progress during the lesson by monitoring their answers to in class work. Some problems will be completed with assistance from the teacher and the rest of the class and some will be completed by the individual student. The problems that are solved by the individual students will be a good measure and indicator to the teacher as to whether students are understanding the material and progressing towards the objective of the lesson or not. It is the goal of the teacher to make sure that all students progress towards meeting the objective. If the teacher sees that a student is struggling and is not progressing adequately, this student will receive help from the teacher during the time when the students are working problems individually to help the student understand. If many of the students are struggling, the teacher will work more of this type of problem for the whole class. Analysis of Post Assessment Results:

Objective of Lesson: When given a number with an exponent students will be able to find the value of that number 90% of the time. Student 1: Met the Objective. Student 2: Met the objective. Student 3: Met the objective. With only three students in my class, all three of the students met the objective. All of the students were able to build upon the knowledge that they already possessed in order to gain a new understanding of exponents and their use. Results: Pre-Assessment of Whole Class

When I administered the pre-assessment to the students, they were all able to tell me something about exponents. They all had a basic understanding of exponents and had a vague idea of how exponents can be used. All of the students contributed at least one aspect of the concepts of exponents to the preassessment web. Post-Assessment of Whole Class

After the lesson all of the students were able to solve problems using exponents. They knew all of the basic aspects of using exponents. Students could use the acronym Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally to decide when to use exponents in a word problem and could write exponents in word form as well as in number form. Individual Student Analysis Student 1: (low performer) Pre-Assessment: Knows that numbers can be squared (x2) and called the square a tiny number Post-Assessment: Knows how to use exponents in several different situations, know who to use exponents to solve word problems, know when to use exponents according to PEMDAS (order of operations). Student 2: (high performer) Pre-Assessment: Student explains that x2 is x*x Has knowledge that exponents are used as an efficient way to write large numbers. Post-Assessment: Knows how to solve problems using exponents and understands how to use exponents in PEMDAS. Knows how to write exponents in word form and exponential form. Student 3: (average performer)

Pre-Assessment: Explains that y=mx+b has something to do with exponents and knows that y2-y1/x2-x1 has exponents in it. Post-Assessment: Can solve problems using exponents and understand how to use PEMDAS. None of the students in my class came into the lesson with a very good working knowledge of exponents. They all did, however, know something about exponents, though most knowledge was very vague. In my lesson there were three students. I looked at these students to find the low, the high, and the average performer in the group. I concluded that student 2 was the high performer, student 3 was the average performer, and student 1 was the low performer. The high performing student entered the lesson with the most extensive and useful knowledge about exponents. This student was able to explain that exponents can be used to more efficiently write large numbers. During the lesson I asked the students to write 2 as a factor one million times. This student wrote something on his paper and looked up at the front as if he were finished. I did not expect anyone to be able to do this because when I had done the pre-assessment I did not gather that anyone knew how to write numbers in exponential form. However, this student was able to write 2 to the one millionth power correctly without ever being told or shown how to do this. This student also knew that x2 is another way to say x times two. During the lesson the student was able to answer all of the problems that faced him. He did not necessarily know all of the answers without first being shown how to solve problems but he was able to watch and catch on fairly easily. At the end of the lesson the student was able to explain how he learned to use the acronym PEMDAS in solving problems with exponents. The high performing student in this class exceeded the expectations and mastered the objective with 100% accuracy. The average performing student in this group was able to present some equations during the making of the pre-assessment map that include some exponents. He seemed to know what exponents were and where he may have used them before but was uneasy when asked what purpose exponents serve. During the lesson on exponents this student was engaged and answered questions when asked by the teacher during whole group instruction. The student was able to answer most questions and seemed to understand the concept of exponents. While the teacher was walking around the room during the time that the students were doing individual work the student was progressing with some difficulty. The teacher provided a small amount of scaffolding but the student was able to ask questions that indicated a good understanding of the material. The average performing student in this class answered nine of ten of the questions correctly. This means that she scored 90% which confirms that she mastered the objective. The low performing student in this group entered the lesson knowing that people use the term squared. This student knew that when people mentioned squared that they were referring to the tiny number. The low performing student basically entered the lesson with no recollection of previously learning anything about exponents and could only vaguely explain what the term referred to. During the lesson the student really had no background knowledge to build upon; therefore, it was important for the teacher to build a bit of schema for the student. This student put fourth effort in solving problems

at first but seemed to get a bit frustrated when she was asked to complete questions on her own. With the help of the teacher or the support of peers, this student seemed to understand the material. After the lesson, this student was able to do much more with exponents. She could use PEMDAS to solve problems involving exponents. She could also explain when one may use exponents. The low performing student in this class struggled on the ten problems that s she received. She tried working them on her own but was becoming frustrated. This student received help on three problems and was eventually able to meet the objective with 90% accuracy.

Analysis of Student learning as a Group Prior to my lesson on exponents, none of the students had enough knowledge about exponents to answer questions that might arise on the HSAP exam. However, they did have a small bit of knowledge about what exponents were and I was able to build on this knowledge. I taught the lesson and using the during assessments I was able to monitor the progress of the students during the lesson. All of the students made adequate progress during the lesson on exponents and I was shocked to see how the students used what they already knew as a foundation to what they learned. The students picked up on the lesson well and at the end of the lesson all students were able to meet the objective. All of the students were able to answer questions using exponents correctly 90% of the time. How could I Make This Lesson Better? This lesson went well, overall. I feel that there were some things that could have been done differently to make the lesson better and more engaging for the students. The students in this class are not used to sitting for almost an hour and working on one thing. In this lesson, we did. The students stayed focused for most of the time but eventually I feel like I was losing the focus of the students. I feel that I should learn more techniques for bringing students back in when I feel that they are losing focus. I feel that if there would have been some hands on activities that the students would have stayed engaged for longer and been more interested in what they were learning. I also think that the students should do more of the talking and I should do less. I feel that if the students are talking, the students are learning. I also feel that the collection of the data during the assessment should have been set up a bit different. While there was data collected, the method that was used was very inefficient and did not allow enough data to look back on and analyze after the lesson. I would like to look more into ways that I could collect data while still staying tuned in to the needs of my students in that moment.